Copy text from quick look in El Capitan or Sierra?

Solution 1:

1. It's not that the defaults write command fails. I verified the file, and it wrote the variable to it. The problem is somewhere in the design. Maybe they have moved it? I have been looking in the containers and other files but no luck yet. I hope they didn't completely kill it. Maybe there is a way to copy the old Yosemite version of QL back? If I figure it out, I will update here. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7250702

2. TRUE - YES or 1 have the same effect, so, there is no problem on this side.

3. The option is no longer available on Onyx or TinkerTools too :

Conclusion :

Actually there is no solution to get back the text edit feature on Quick Look.

Following this Apple Thread is the last way to keep hope

It is worth noting that you can copy from spotlight for certain files, as discovered here. Not a great workaround but still allows copying without opening a file. The supported file types are the following:

• .doc/.docx/.pps/.ppt/.pptx/.xls/.xlsx (also scrollable)
• .rtf including text-based .rtfd
• .numbers '09 v2.3, keynote '09 v5.3
• .odt
• all text based documents, including source code, xml, plists, and .command files
• compatible image types

Solution 2:

Just to tie together the comments & partial answers…

Current state of play [as of OS X 10.11.2] would actually appear to be "this can no longer be done".

Regarding the following on QLEnableTextSelection… that one alternative will fix it whilst the other doesn't appears to be some kind of hopeful, yet unfounded, meme going round the interweb - people posting it on as received wisdom, without actually testing it.

Here is the method anyway… though it doesn't work for El Capitan...

Test whether the pref already exists, & if it does what its current value is, using
defaults read com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection

Then try one of these to set your new pref
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE or
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool YES

Test again to check the value was at least written, should return 1 if present & enabled.

Restart the Finder if your result did change from 0 to 1.

Empirically, YES & TRUE give the same result, as do NO & FALSE